We were lucky to catch up with Cristian Leonardo Ramirez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Cristian Leonardo , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

We are from Argentina, and with my family we decided to move to Palmetto Bay, where my sister in law lives,
After the pandemic we were looking for a restaurant, and we fell in love with the French Bistro, The countryside decor, the grill to make Argentinian Parrillada and the breadcrumbs to make Milanesas, one of my daughter’s favorite food, were the highlights, besides the plus of being located in the beautiful Village of Palmetto Bay.

After a few weeks of being working, my daughters came up with the idea of keeping the name French Bistro, which was for more than 20 years, but they told me “”Dad, we have to say We are from Argentina too!
It was during the Fifa Worldcup and the Final was Argentina vs France. Argentina won, so we change the US1 sign and we added the ARGENTINIAN STEAKHOUSE with the Argentinian flag. We even hang a big Argentinian Flag inside the restaurant, and everybody asked about the controversy between French Bistro and Argentinian Steakhouse.
My wife Melina , explain to everyone that her great grandfather was from France, then they moved to Italy and then to Argentina, her mom’s last name is Iuvalé, And she believes that the restaurant chose us, kind of Law of Attraction.

Miami Spice in 2023 came as our second year participating and they invited us to develop our Signature Menu and we created THE FINAL MENU Argentina vs France with our most 7 iconic dishes, each one inspired by each of the goals at the football match.

Sobewff 2023 arrived and we created our signature Beef Bourgiuignon Empanada, more than 2500 mini empanadas handmade by Corina Traituros, knife cut beef in wine and herbs reduction with creamy mushroom sauce & shredded carrot to dip in. It was among the 4 best bites at the beach at the Goya Grand Tasting Village, it was incredible how much peopple enjoyed not only the food but also the crossing culture experience.

For Miami Spice 2024 at Dinner we are going to offer our Signature Vacio al Malbec, our Argentinian version of the Beef Bourguignon , slowed cook for 4 hours in Argentinian Malbec wine.

In addition this year we created our Signature Experience, a 4 course menu inspired by some of the most renowned regions of Argentina and France .

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We started like a challenge to demostred people the similarities between France and Argentina.
Like the Country lights in Paris or Buenos Aires, The Tango Bandeoneon or the French Accordion. The Malbec wine originally from France but World know for the Argentnian Malbec. The crepes caramel flambe with Rum in Argentina called Panqueque de Dulce de Leche. The sweetbeads wellknow in all over France but part of our Argentinian BBQ. and many more.
We also created the cacerole “Provoflette” mixing ingredients from Tartiflette from Fance and Provoleta from Argentina, we loved when by tables order it and share it between them.

Last March we were invited from Cream It produtiong o participate at Citi Taste of Miami and they made uss felt overwelmed with our stand decor reveling perfectly our philosophy.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Our Family second name is RESILENCE. We discuss and fight a lot, we cant denied it, but at the end of the day we are all together supporting each others. Specially with taking care of our daughters, Azul 13, Abril 10 and Alma 7.

We still struggling with the lack of employees and inflation so Melina takes turn with Corina to balance between been at the Restaurant and Melina at home with the girls during weekdays after school to do homework an take them to the ballet classes. and Corina take care of them during weekends and can spend time with her daughters Araceli, 30 and Micaela 28. Araceli and Micaela also help us going to big events and with the girls when we need to be all at the restaurant because a big party or we have to attend a food festival.

At the begging our daughters had to spend lot of time at the restaurant, even weekends because the lack of employees, some wise Doctor told us, don’t feel guilty, they are learning how to work hard in order to be successful, Nowadays when they stay at the restaurant they enjoy cooking some desserts with their Aunt Corina, The Master Baker , or a special dish with Chef Dad, also help Melina designing the menus. One of our daughters T told us don’t you ever sell the restaurant because when you pass away we want to keep it for us! So that is what we need to be resilience and keep working hard despite the inflation, the slow times and all the challenges.
When we started one of them draw a small paper with the logo and it says “Nunca te rindas” which means “Never Give up” We have it on the fridge door and we read it everyday!

Last June, we changed the POS system and it was so hard the first day, they were by Melina side cheering her up and telling her ” You can do it ”
Family support and love!

Have you ever had to pivot?

I born between pods and pans. My father Victor Hugo Ramirez, had several restaurants in Buenos Aires, even had the Restaurant at Circulo de Pilotos de Yates. inside an anchored Boat in the Rio de la Plata. I spent many years working with him at Tango Bar, in Belgrano neighborhood, next to a Gym. When he get retiredmy best friend offered me to work at San Fernando Airport working as a Bird Control. I worked for 14 years , my last position was Ramp Supervisor at Aeeroparque Jorge Newvery, when I get an offer to move to Pisa Airport , we have Italian Passports, so we were more than ready to move to Italy, I even had a ticket to fly but 2 days before I had to cancel it because of the pandemic and our Italy dream fall apart because of the lockfdown

1 year after we went on vacation to viisit the family and get the Covid Vaccination and we found the restaurant so we decided to stay and the rest is history….

Contact Info:

• Website: https://order.toasttab.com/online/french-bistro-argentinian-steakhouse-13611-south-dixie-highway-ste-110
• Instagram: @frenchbistromiami
• Other: https://frenchbistromiami.com/

Image Credits

https://miamicubanballetschool.com/
@miamicubanballetschool

https://artisticpixels80.pixieset.com/
@artisticpixels2.8